June 19, 2009

A group of US pork producers who proposed a Producer Retirement Programme has terminated its plans for the programme due to a lack of participation.

 

Brian Foster, with Insight Enterprise Consulting, confirmed to Dow Jones Newswires that the programme had been halted.

 

In a release on the group's Web site, Chuck Wirtz, chairman of the board of directors of the Producer Retirement Programme, said "market conditions have changed dramatically for the worse for the pork industry in the past few months. Unfortunately, since this group of pork producers began work designing the PRP, most producers with sows are no longer in a financial position to support the programme."

 

The Producer Retirement Programme was designed to supplement the cull price that the members would otherwise receive for their sows if they decided to exit all or a portion of their production for a two-year period. The retirement programme was dependent on a sufficient number of pork producers with sows signing up and paying a US$20-per-sow subscription fee, the release said.

 

Producers have been losing money since September 2007, analysts said. Record-high feed costs last summer, softened demand for pork and other meats as a result of the economic crisis since last fall, and the discovery of AH1N1 flu in late April have resulted in deep losses for many of the nation's hog producers, they said.